During last year’s MWC convention in Barcelona the one thing that intrigued me the very most was Ubuntu mobile, and their plans to warp their ingenious work from the desktop platform, on a regular consumer phone. Since then, developers had the chance to try this platform for themselves through the help of a modded Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Alongside Tizen and Firefox OS, the company had big plans of releasing a simplified consumer version until the end of the 2013.

Exactly one year later, Ubuntu sprouts again out of the bushes and announces to steady partners that have been chose to carry Ubuntu mobile on their own platform: Meizu and BQ. The devices in question are actually highly modified versions of the Meizu MX3 and the latest BQ Aquaris, in matters of both software and internal specification. While we don’t posses extended knowledge about the last part, we can tell you quite a lot about the platform, and their maker’s plans for this year.

Ubuntu Phone finally arriving as Meizu MX 3 and BQ Aquaris

Why Ubuntu is going to matter on the mobile world? Well, taking in consideration that their were the very first to bring out an user interface to desktop consumers, one might say they have the experience necessary to change things around. Secondly, Ubuntu will become cross-platform right from the mobile sibling launch, meaning that future owners will be able to use exactly the same package on different devices of various shapes and sizes. This should be a certain thing, as the Ubuntu mobile software shares 90% of the desktop code through the use of HTML5, as in the moment of writing.

Moreover, due to the fact that Ubuntu has the same roots as Android (Linux language and the Apache Cordova development platform), it’s most likely that anything that works on Android or iOS should work on Ubuntu. This is a key advantage in front of Windows Phone, which was also gained through the use of HTML 5. As announced, the platform will have the top 50 apps from both iOS and Android worlds, right from the start.

As for the devices itself, we are still waiting for the complete specifications sheet, but here’s how internals look on the Android-flavored versions of Meizu MX 3 and BQ Aquaris:

Meizu MX3

BQ Aquaris 5

Display

5.1-inch LCD with 1800×1080 resolution

5-inch with 540×960 resolution

Rear camera

8-megapixel

8-megapixel

Front camera

2-megapixel

VGA

Storage

16GB/32GB/64GB

16GB

Battery

2400 mAh

2200 mAh

CPU

4-core processor at 1.6 GHz plus 4-core processor at 1.2 GHz

quad-core Cortex A7 at 1.2 GHz

GPU

PowerVR SGX 544MP3 with 3 cores at 533 MHz

PowerVR SGX544 at 286 MHz

RAM

2 GB dual-channel

1 GB

Connectivity

Wi-Fi, HSPA+

Wi-Fi, HSPA

Even though Meizu and BQ don’t sound like qualified partners to stir the balance of Android, iOS and Windows Phone, they are still heavy competitors in the mobile industry. For instance, Meizu has successfully amazed the audience with slim, powerful and cheap phones, will BQ knows a thing or two about beautiful designs. As mentioned above, both terminals will be launched by the end of the year, for an unknown figure.

Alex holds an engineering degree in Telecommunications and has been covering technology as a writer since 2009. Customization is his middle name and he doesn’t like to own stock model gadgets. When he’s away from the keyboard, simpler things like hiking, mountain climbing and having a cold drink make his day.